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Home , Agostino Steffani, Alessandro Poglietti, Fiori musicali, Giacomo Carissimi, Giovanni Valentini, Johann Caspar Kerll

KERLLComplete and Organ Music

Matteo Messori (1627-1693) Complete Harpsichord and Organ Music

1. Toccata prima* 4’27 Suite in D** Modulatio organica super Magnificat 2. Toccata seconda* 4’15 19. Allamande 2’34 octo Ecclesiaticis tonis respondens 3. Toccata terza* 5’12 20. 1’14 (1686)**** 4. Toccata quarta (cromatica con 21. 1’17 34. Magnificat Primi Toni 7’16 35. Magnificat Secundi Toni 7’33 durezze e ligature)* 4’21 22. 2’07 (Cantus planus: Magnificat – 36. Magnificat Tertii Toni 6’34 5. Toccata quinta (tutta de salti)** 4’12 Organum: Anima mea – Et esultavit 37. Magnificat Quarti Toni 7’06 6. Toccata sesta Suite in F*** – Versus Quia respexit – Quia fecit 38. Magnificat Quinti Toni 6’21 (per il pedale)**** 3’54 23. Allamande 2’48 – Versus Et misericordia – Fecit 39. Magnificat Sexti Toni 7’04 7. Toccata settima* 3’08 24. Courante 1’03 potentiam – Versus Deposuit – 40. Magnificat Septimi Toni 6’48 8. Toccata ottava** 4’24 25. Sarabande 1’23 Esurientes – Versus Suscepit Israel 41. Magnificat Octavi Toni 6’33 9. Canzone prima**** 3’26 26. Gigue 1’29 – Sicut locutus est – Versus Gloria 10. Canzone seconda** 4’27 – Sicut erat – Versus Ultimus loco 11. Canzone terza* 4’05 Suite in A minor** Antiphonae) 12. Canzone quarta**** 3’45 27. Allamande - Partita 4’40 13. Canzone quinta*** 3’11 28. Courante - Partita 2’14 14. Canzone sesta* 5’13 29. Sarabande - Partita 2’17 15. Ciaccona** 2’45 16. * 6’34 Suite in G** 17. Capriccio sopra il Cucu** 3’03 30. Allamande - Partita 4’51 Matteo Messori and organ 18. Battaglia*** 9’50 31. Courante - Partita 2’54 * Italian harpsichord built by Romain Legros after an anonymous instrument preserved in 32. Sarabande - Partita 3’02 the Ca’ Rezzonico museum, ** Italian harpsichord built by Romain Legros, copy after Giovanni Battista Giusti (Lucca 33. Rycercata in Cylindrum 1681) phonotacticum transferenda* 3’20 *** Harpsichord built by Barthélémy Formentelli after a South French anonymous instrument **** Organ built by Johann Ignaz Egedacher (1732), Pfarrkirche Mariä Himmelfahrt in Vornbach am Inn ()

Łukasz Dulewicz plainsong (tracks 34-41) Ore refers hominem, In features you represent a man but in contribution to the development of liturgical and secular music, the only way to dulci modulamine Numen, sweet modulation a divinity, proceed was to send its most gifted scion directly to the source. aetatis diceris esse tuae. You are called the Orpheus of your age, In Kerll probably got to know , who had studied Austriacas mulces Aquilas, You charm the Austrian eagles and the under Frescobaldi and who was in contact with Carissimi and the Jesuit father Bavaròsque Leones: Bavarian lions, , who was later to publish for the first time a piece by both Suspensons Italos, Teutoniámque tenes. and cheer and Germany. German musicians in his Musurgia universalis (1650). In due course Kerll returned to his post in , which he held until his benefactor was forced to withdraw on account of ill health. There were other positions to be filled, however, and in 1656 Ferdinand Maria, Elector of , Johann Caspar Kerll’s work reveals deep knowledge of the principle compositional appointed Kerll deputy and then Kapellmeister in . During this forms for keyboard and vocal music established in the first decades of the seventeenth latter period, as well as teaching , Kerll wrote a number of . century by exponents of Roman musical institutions such as , Although unfortunately only the librettos have come down to us, it is nevertheless harpsichord virtuoso and organist at St. Peter’s, and , chapel possible to form an idea of the style of the music by a comparative study of the sacred master at the church of S. Apollinare, which pertained to the Collegium Germanicum play Pia et fortis mulier. During the same period he also composed some splendid et Hungaricum. church music, such as the collection of sacred concertos Delectus sacrarum cantionum Kerll was born in 1627 in , in the hilly region in the southern part of the (1669) and numerous masses that combined innovative handling of the concertante Saxon Vogtland, bordering on Thuringia, Bohemia and Bavaria. His family were style and a distinctly experimental approach to . As with his collection of Lutherans, and his father, an organist, saw to his son’s early musical education. The liturgical works for the organ, these compositions established him as one of the great boy’s outstanding musical abilities soon came to the fore: by 1641 he was already masters of the learned style of the second half of the 1600s. skilled in composition, which brought him to the attention of Archduke Leopold The performance of one of his masses during the coronation of Emperor Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, Emperor Ferdinand III’s brother, who paid for him to go to I in in 1658 gave Kerll an opportunity to show off his incredible talents as to study under , the court Kapellmeister. In 1647 Kerll, a keyboard performer. Having received a subject from the sovereign himself, he duly who in the meantime converted to Catholicism, moved to Brussels at the behest of proceeded to improvise on this at the organ, thereby creating an event that became the Archduke, who in his role as governor of the Spanish Netherlands had appointed so famous as to be recalled yet again in 1740 by . Kerll’s great the twenty-year-old musician court organist. Approximately two years later Leopold gifts probably accounted for his elevation to the ranks of the nobility in 1664 at the Wilhelm, a great enthusiast of art and music, sent his favourite organist to Rome to behest of the Emperor. When he left his post in Munich in 1673, it was on account study under Giacomo Carissimi, who had previously refused to work directly for the of a major controversy with the Italian court singers, who simply could not and Archduke. So if the court in Brussels wished to absorb the novelty inherent in Rome’s would not accept the unusual intervals and audacious passages that disregarded the conventionally accepted rules of composition. to mythology and classicism to deplore the way his keyboard works and sacred That same year Kerll turned up in Vienna, although no documents exist that compositions often circulated with attributions to other musicians. For the first time might confirm an appointment as organist at St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Documentary in the history of music he provided a catalogue that he himself had compiled featuring evidence is also lacking to support the hypothesis that , Georg the musical incipits of his harpsichord and organ compositions. The present recording Reutter the Elder and studied under him in this period. However, focuses on these very works, which speak eloquently for the 17th century keyboard we do have proof of his friendship with , whose daughter, Anna tradition of Italianate inspiration: eight Toccatas, six Canzonas, one Capriccio sopra Catharina Paulina, was christened in 1675 with Kerll acting as godfather. That same il Cucu, one Battaglia, one Passacaglia, one Ciaccona and four Suites. year Leopold I granted him a pension, and in 1677 employed him directly as one of Kerll’s keyboard music circulated extensively between the 17th and 18th centuries, his court organists. Sadly the Vienna period also coincided with two tragic events. considerably influencing a number of important . These included Johann In 1679 an outbreak of the Plague claimed almost 100,000 victims, who probably Pachelbel, Johann Krieger, , his pupil Franz Xaver Murschhausen, included Kerll’s first wife. It was in those very weeks that he composed his organ Georg Friedrich Händel, who adapted the entire fourth Canzona for the chorus masterpiece, the verses for the eight notes of the Magnificat, published in Munich in “Egypt was glad when they departed” in the Israel in Egypt and used part 1686 with the title Modulatio organica. In 1683 the imperial city was besieged by the of the Capriccio Sopra il Cucu in the second movement of the Organ Concerto HWV Turks: the death of his friend and colleague Alessandro Poglietti must have been a 295, and , who, according to Carl Philipp Emanuel, studied source of great grief to him, to judge by the Missa in fletu solatium that he wrote to Kerll’s keyboard works as a youngster and based the Sanctus BWV 241 on Kerll’s commemorate the atmosphere of those days. Missa superba. From 1683 Kerll was back in Munich, where in 1689 he published his most This recording is based on critical collation of over thirty sources. Some of these imposing work, the Missae sex, each one briefly described in the preface. The whole manuscripts are dated around the middle of the 1670s, which suggests that most of collection was dedicated to Leopold I, who was also a of sacred music. Kerll’s keyboard works, with the exception of the organ versetti and probably also the According to Wolfgang Caspar Printz’s contemporary account, Kerll may also Suites, date back to the first part of his career. have spent some time in Augsburg, but there is no documentary evidence to support Apart from the Suites, all the pieces clearly reveal the influence of Girolamo this. During these latter years Kerll also taught Franz Xaver Murschhauser, who was Frescobaldi, especially as conveyed by the printed editions of 1637. These innovations enormously influenced by him, especially as regards the organ versets contained in his blend with other elements of novelty introduced by Frescobaldi’s pupil, Johann Jakob Octi-tonium novum organicum (1696). Froberger, such as the predilection for concluding certain toccatas with gigue-like Kerll died in 1693 and was buried in the crypt of the Augustinian Monastery in sections and the more modern handling of thematic material in the imitative sections. Munich. In his toccatas Kerll takes to their extreme virtuoso consequences the technical In the edition of the Magnificat mentioned above, there is a lengthy introduction innovations and figurations to be found in Frescobaldi, especially in his ninth Toccata in Latin in which the composer arms himself with sarcasm and learned references of the second book. The predilection of the German composer for the long trill passages, often in both hands at the same time (for instance at the end of the Toccata consonance. It was probably this taste for unusual chromatism that upset the Italian prima), the double passages in the same hand where there is not only a trill but also a singers at the Munich court, a controversy that ultimately caused the move to Vienna melodic development in another voice (in the finale of theToccata seconda), the rapid mentioned above. successions of descending octaves (at the beginning of the Toccata quinta) all seem to A number of elements of the stylus phantasticus characteristic of Frescobaldi’s derive from the exemplum that Frescobaldi provided in the piece mentioned above. toccatas “sopra i Pedali per l’Organo” are included and further developed in Little wonder, then, that the Italian composer himself concluded his composition with the Toccata sesta, the only one that is specifically for the organ. In this work, the note “non senza fatiga si giunge al fine”… improvisation formulas are carried out on long pedal notes, thereby making full and Kerll’s toccatas are arranged according to the eight modes in the versions that effective use of the sonority of the organo pieno. underwent change during the seventeenth century in order to ensure that the singing As with the toccatas, the six highly variegated canzonas are also arranged was comfortably within the range of each voice, thanks to the progressive adoption according to the sequence described above, with the exception of the third toccata, of tuning systems that permitted on fixed-pitch instruments more flexibility than in the first mode, and the sixth, in the eighth. Kerll echoes and develops the canzonas meantone temperament. While the second mode was traditionally transposed to the tradition established in Frescobaldi’s second book, and indeed the style derived from upper fourth on G, the first, sixth and eighth modes maintained regular positions, the it by Froberger. The rhythmic mutation of the subjects in the various sections is third mode of the Toccata terza is used with finalis A, and in the Toccata quarta the skilfully handled, with recourse to inversion and diminution. Like his predecessors, in fourth mode effectively corresponds to an E minor (even supplied with the F sharp in the Canzone seconda Kerll dissolves the conclusion of the ternary imitative section in the key signature). The fifth mode acts like a modern C major. Although at the time a toccata-like development in “tempo imperfetto”. In the demanding Canzone terza the seventh mode frequently acted like a pseudo D major, in the Toccata settima it there is a bizarre passage in the middle of the composition with a suggestive double ends on G and therefore is hard to distinguish from the eighth mode of the following progression alternately played by the two hands that calls for great agility. Like the and last toccata. sixth, this canzona ends with a ternary dance, a solution that Froberger also favoured, Kerll had a predilection for rapid scales and progressions that call for great manual as we have already said in relation to the toccatas. The incipit of the first subject of agility. Often the free passages reminiscent of Frescobaldi’s adagios unexpectedly the Canzone prima, the Canzone terza and the Canzone quarta features the typical turn into very lively sections. The fourth Toccata presents a magnificent and highly fast repetition of the same note frequently found in southern German keyboard individual handling of the traditional “Durezze e Ligature” that brings to mind compositions. Borrowed from the language of wind and bowed string instruments of Frescobaldi’s two Toccatas and Capriccio of the same genre, and the two grand the period, it turns up again in some verses of the Modulatio organica. Toccatas for the Elevation. Here Kerll gives free rein to his skill in counterpoint, The Capriccio sopra il Cucu is Kerll’s contribution to a genre established by with a surprising use of double counterpoint applied to the genus chromaticum – Frescobaldi, who had written a piece using this very title. It is performed here in further developed in an extreme way in the Kyrie and in the Amen of the Missa in the version found in the Göttweig, , Munich and Regensburg manuscripts, fletu solatium, where he instructs the basso continuo player to avoid accurately any without the insertions and alterations that were probably added later and that feature in the other sources. Following the regular, four-voice exposition, the myriad instances in Kircher’s Musurgia universalis in Rome in 1650 as a four-stave open score of the call of the cuckoo seem to create a dialogue of growing, almost erotic intensity attributed to Kerll. The piece was included in the tome as an illustration of how a between two birds, culminating in the climax of the end. (Kerll’s friend Poglietti, who composition could be transferred onto a cylinder devised for an automatic instrument. wrote the wonderful Rossignolo cycle, also had a passion for pieces inspired by various The work does not feature in the catalogue Kerll himself compiled, yet it does appear birdcalls, addressing the subject of rendering them in music in his Compendium). as the fourth piece in the numerous manuscripts containing the profound twelve Frescobaldi also provided the model for the two series of variations on ground Ricercars by Kerll’s friend, Alessandro Poglietti. Kircher may have been mistaken in bass (Ciaccona and Passacaglia). Just as Kerll had borrowed from the great Italian the attribution, which would account for the fact that the piece was not included in composer, so later composers such as Pachelbel, Krieger, Muffat and Fischer found the catalogue. Alternatively, Kerll himself may have felt that the printed attribution inspiration in his compositions for their own efforts using the same bassi ostinati. The in the Musurgia was sufficient to avoid future plagiary. At all events, the friendship Passacaglia, along with the Battaglia, turned out to be Kerll’s longest keyboard work. between Kerll and Poglietti considerably complicates the whole question. Erroneously attributed to Cabanilles by two Spanish sources, this latter capriccio The Modulatio organica was written as a gift for the Austrian Duchess Maria appears in Kerll’s thematic catalogue. This album presents the first ever recording Antonia on the occasion of her marriage to the Elector of Bavaria and is the most of the complete version of the work found in the manuscript kept at the Benedictine important organ work written for the Catholic liturgy since the times of Frescobaldi’s Abbey in Göttweig. It thus includes the Presto that Adolf Sandberger believed . Kerll’s musical inventions were rooted in the style of the “prima to be spurious. In actual fact it is a perfect example of a “Scaramuz[z]a”, as it is prattica”. Furthermore, he needed all his skill to address the challenge of keeping the described in the Munich manuscript. The Austrian source is also the only version contrapuntal development within the constraints imposed by the liturgy as regards in which the order of the sections is, in all likelihood, correct, which means that the duration, as the organist played short versets in alternation with the cantus planus, in music is deliberately shaped as a more extensive suite than the genre addressed by this case of the Magnificat. Frescobaldi in his piece of the same name. In the Spanish sources mentioned above, In the first verses of each tone Anima( mea Dominum) he counterpointed the entire the last section bears the title “La Victoria”, which rightly conjures up the idea of a cantus firmus entrusted to the soprano. Like the final verses in the customary toccata triumphant happy ending. style, they are most likely intended for the plenum. The five central verses, which Quintessential chamber works, the four suites largely follow in Froberger’s are strictly imitative, gave the player the chance to use the registers available in the footsteps, two of them consisting of four dances, and the other two of three. With the different organs built within the Catholic lands of the Holy Roman Empire of the former, the sequences both conclude with a gigue, while with the latter the lack of a German Nation (for instance the instrument built by Egedacher for the Pfarrkirche fourth dance is counterbalanced by the addition of embellished variations for each in Vornbach am Inn, used in this recording), in compliance with the affetto of the dance (called Partitas). Skilful use of the style brisé prevails throughout, occasionally respective text, as Kerll specifically instructed in the preface. The ideas and potential becoming highly expressive. implicit in the material must have spurred the composer’s imagination for quite some There are unresolved issues regarding the learned and austere Ricercata published time. In the end he even chose to develop in detail the subject of the Versus Quia respexit of the Magnificat Primi toni, which acted as the base for the Missa non sine importance for keyboard music in quare. The actual structure of the ecclesiastical tones and the cadenzas in this work south and central Germany. Along sometimes differs to that of the toccatas. For example, in the seventh tone Kerll with his sumptuous masses, the uses the differentiae of the psalm tones. Moreover, the collection also often features sacred concertos and what has come subjects with the composer’s beloved rapid repetitions of the same note in the head, down to us of his dramatic works, displays of virtuoso brilliance in passages of double trills, and accentuation of the these compositions greatly helped pathos by means of chromatism. shape the legacy of the composer The performance on this album is also based on systematic study of the notation described by Hans T. David as “the of embellishments in the keyboard music influenced by Frescobaldi. Thanks to Cesare outstanding musical figure in the Atticciati’s research, it is no longer acceptable to play literally the three formulas Catholic region of the Holy Roman used by Frescobaldi to indicate in full the trills within the value of the crotchet: that Empire”. starting with the main note, that beginning on the upper note and ending on the In conclusion, I would like to lower note, and that starting on the main note with lower final note. Moreover, the express my heartfelt thanks to all Ferrarese composer demanded that the successions of trills should not be rhythmically those who have made this album “synchronised note to note”. In his pieces of Frescobaldian influence, especially in possible: Francesca Tosolini for the toccata-like passages, Kerll (and indeed Froberger) adopts the same principle of her constant support in every stage Italian origin whereby the embellishments are written per extensum without recourse of production and editing; Tanja to graphic symbols, yet without expecting the rhythm thus approximately portrayed Kemper and the parish community to be respected during performance. The same thing can be extended to the trills of Vornbach for allowing us to developed within values longer than a crotchet. In the Suites, on the other hand, the record on the Egedacher organ, trills are almost always indicated by means of a graphic sign (here again, in keeping on the banks of the river Inn; with Froberger), and are played starting on the main note in keeping with Italian Barthélémy Formentelli, Romain Legros and Marco Vincenzi for lending me their practice, as documented by Kerll’s pupil Murschhauser. Indeed, until French influence harpsichords; Fabio Roversi Monaco and the staff of Genus Bononiae who let me gradually spread through Germany at the beginning of the following century, the use the Sala Vasari in the ex Convento di San Michele in Bosco in my own city of French manner of the trill beginning on the upper note is not found in German Bologna; and lastly Anna Katarzyna Zare¸ba, who supported me yet again in the sources. When Kerll wishes to include it in his music, he spells it out explicitly. organization, and quite often also tuned the harpsichords. As we have already pointed out, Kerll’s keyboard compositions not only brought © Matteo Messori further development to an earlier tradition, but also became models of consummate Translation by Kate Singleton and Anna Katarzyna Zare¸ba Hailed in November 2011 by the German magazine FonoForum as “entering into the He conducted the State Chamber Orchestra of the Republic of Belarus at the top league of the international Bach interpreters” Matteo Messori – born in 1976 in Minsk Philharmonic (performing his compositions, among other works), as well as Bologna () – is active as harpsichordist, organist, clavichordist, conductor and the first Italian stage performance of the Händel’s oratorioLa Bellezza ravveduta. He composer, and has recorded 35 albums. also conducted Capella Cracoviensis in the Cracow Philharmonic (), with the Since 2014 he is Organ and Organ Composition professor at the Genoa Christmas Oratory by Bach; and concerts by Bach at the Great Hall of the Conservatory and teaches also Harpsichord and Historical keyboards at the Bergamo Saint Petersburg (Russia); by Bach in Bologna, Roma and L’Aquila (Italy); Alta Conservatory (where he taught Organ from 2002 till 2014). Capella in sacred music by Mozart and Haydn (in Poland). After showing an early interest in music, he began his piano studies at the age of As harpsichordist he performed with the Wiener Philharmoniker and Daniel four, continuing in the Bologna Conservatory under Franca Fogli, first student in Harding at the Vienna Konzerthaus (2011). Bologna of the young Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. He later studied Organ and He published numerous musicological articles, essays and biographical notes for Composition with Umberto Pineschi at the Bologna Conservatory, graduating cum the German music dictionary MGG online, the Italian Enciclopedia Treccani, for the laude. He also studied Harpsichord with Sergio Vartolo, graduating cum laude at the Bach-Jahrbuch, Schütz-Jahrbuch, Fonti Musicali Italiane and La Gazzetta (Deutsche Venice Conservatory, and Musicology at the University of his native city. Rossini Gesellschaft). In 1998 he won the first prize at the International harpsichord competition “G. He arranged and composed several string parts for the famous German soprano Gambi” in Pesaro (Italy). He performs regularly as a soloist throughout Europe and Simone Kermes and the early music ensemble La Magnifica Comunità, published in America. Among his important recitals, he performed in the glorious Thomaskirche the Sony Classics album Love. in (Germany, 2004) and, two times, at the Great Hall of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic (Russia, 2011 and 2012). As the conductor and music director of the Cappella Augustana ensemble he debuted in 2000, recording the first album dedicated entirely to the sacred music of the Kapellmeister in and organist at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Vincenzo Albrici (1631-1687), for the Swedish label Mvsica Rediviva. Between 2003 and 2008, he conducted Cappella Augustana in the Heinrich Schütz Edition for Brilliant Classics (19 albums), a great success with the public and critics. He recorded the third part of the Clavierübung, , , the Schübler Chorales, the great organ Preludes and Fugues and the Canonical Variations, Inventions & Sinfonias by Johann Sebastian Bach, the complete keyboard works by the Ferrarese composer and by Johann Caspar Kerll. He took part, as clavichordist, in the movie Sul nome B.A.C.H..

Recording: August 2012, Sala Vasari (former Convento di San Michele in Bosco, now Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli), Bologna, Italy; Pfarrkirche Mariä Himmelfahrt, Vornbach am Inn, Germany Recording, mixing and mastering: Michael Seberich (Bozen/Bolzano) Recording, postproduction assistant, editing: Francesca Tosolini Cover: Diana and Callisto (1676) by Johann Spillenberger (1628-1679) p & © 2021 Brilliant Classics